HEXAFLY-INT - High-Speed Experimental Fly Vehicles-International

Obiettivo

The project main objective is the flight validation of hypersonic technologies enabling future high-speed trans-atmospheric flights.

Designing, manufacturing, assembling and flight-testing an unpowered vehicle, the EFTV (Experimental Flight Test Vehicle), whose configuration has been defined in order to have the maximum efficiency at hypersonic speeds (Mach 7-8) and levelled flight, pursues this objective.

The main technical challenges of the project are specifically related to the design of the vehicle gliding configuration and to the complexity of integrating breakthrough technologies with standard aeronautical technologies.

Ad-hoc designed sounding rocket provided by DLR in cooperation with Brazilian Centro de Lançamento de Alcântara, is planned to release the payload at an altitude of 90 km.

The experimental vehicle, thanks to its two control surfaces, will be able to glide through the experimental window, in a stable and controlled way, at an altitude of about 30 km. During the early phase of its descent flight segment, the glider is docked to the Experimental Service Module (ESM) that has the goal to control the vehicle attitude by means of cold gas Reaction Control Systems thrusters. The separation of the ESM from the EFTV is realized by pyro-bolts.

A sensor suite is integrated all along the vehicle to carry out measurements for the scientific purposes of the mission. The instrumentation layout has been defined in order to cover different scientific objectives with different sensor types mounted in the interested regions. More than one hundreds sensors will collect flight data. In addition five cameras (two internal and three external) are used to get real time visual feedback from the vehicle's TPS status, the rudders' motion, the ESM separation.

As no recovery of the payload is foreseen, the reception of experimental data is guarantee by telemetry.

Attività nel progetto CIRA

​CIRA, as Project Engineer and Design Authority of the glider, is in charge of the flight configuration and all the design solutions. It is coordinator of the AIV/AIT phases and responsible for part of the numerical activities supporting the design and the mission definition: aerothermal environment definition, TPS design, launch and trajectory loads computation, trajectory analysis, guidance, navigation and control system definition.

The HEXAFLY-INT, High-Speed Experimental Fly Vehicles – International, project, stemmed from the interest of Europe in hypersonic civil transportation vehicles, is dedicated to the development of a flight test experiment for demonstrating and validating high speed key technologies.

<p style="text-align:justify;">The project main objective is the flight validation of hypersonic technologies enabling future high-speed trans-atmospheric flights.</p><p style="text-align:justify;">Designing, manufacturing, assembling and flight-testing an unpowered vehicle, the EFTV (Experimental Flight Test Vehicle), whose configuration has been defined in order to have the maximum efficiency at hypersonic speeds (Mach 7-8) and levelled flight, pursues this objective. </p><p style="text-align:justify;">The main technical challenges of the project are specifically related to the design of the vehicle gliding configuration and to the complexity of integrating breakthrough technologies with standard aeronautical technologies.</p><p style="text-align:justify;">Ad-hoc designed sounding rocket provided by DLR in cooperation with Brazilian Centro de Lançamento de Alcântara, is planned to release the payload at an altitude of 90 km.</p><p style="text-align:justify;">The experimental vehicle, thanks to its two control surfaces, will be able to glide through the experimental window, in a stable and controlled way, at an altitude of about 30 km. During the early phase of its descent flight segment, the glider is docked to the Experimental Service Module (ESM) that has the goal to control the vehicle attitude by means of cold gas Reaction Control Systems thrusters. The separation of the ESM from the EFTV is realized by pyro-bolts.</p><p style="text-align:justify;">A sensor suite is integrated all along the vehicle to carry out measurements for the scientific purposes of the mission. The instrumentation layout has been defined in order to cover different scientific objectives with different sensor types mounted in the interested regions. More than one hundreds sensors will collect flight data. In addition five cameras (two internal and three external) are used to get real time visual feedback from the vehicle's TPS status, the rudders' motion, the ESM separation.</p><p style="text-align:justify;">As no recovery of the payload is foreseen, the reception of experimental data is guarantee by telemetry.</p>

<p>​FRAMEWORK PROGRAM 7, EUROPEAN COMMISSION</p>

<p>​CIRA, as Project Engineer and Design Authority of the glider, is in charge of the flight configuration and all the design solutions. It is coordinator of the AIV/AIT phases and responsible for part of the numerical activities supporting the design and the mission definition: aerothermal environment definition, TPS design, launch and trajectory loads computation, trajectory analysis, guidance, navigation and control system definition.</p>

2014-03-31T22:00:00Z

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